As a child, how many seemingly stranded little birds did I attempt to “rescue?” All died, every one. In February, I had major surgery to fix the damage another surgeon had unintentionally inflicted upon me two years ago and it flattened me. I have been working my way back and so took my first bicycle ride about three weeks ago – 3 miles. I soon increased that to 6 miles a day, then to eight and this past week I pedaled between 10 and 11 miles just about every day. My goal is to do a 50 mile ride before the summer is over but I set today as the day I would go 15. About 1 mile into that 15 I came upon this stranded little chickadee. I looked all around for the mother bird. I could not see her. I listened. I could not hear her. The best thing to do with any baby animal is just to leave it alone, because it’s mother could still be out there just waiting for you to go so she can come in and rescue it. But this particular chickadee was in a most precarious place and I was pretty convinced that if I left it alone it might well get squished. And whoever squished it would likely never know it. I was not quite sure what to do. I knew better than to try to touch it but I had to get it to safer territory. I took this picture as this car sped past. Then the chickadee started to hop – deeper into Seldon, a busy road. So I walked with it, one step behind. I knew if a car came along the driver would probably curse and swear at me, perhaps let me his own bird, but I figured he would probably also slow down and go around me. Fortunately no car came along as I escorted the Chickedee across Seldon. On the other side we got into some bushes but I kept escorting it until it was about 10 feet away from the road, then I walked back to my bicycle and pedaled away. I don’t know if I did the bird any good or not. The odds against its survival are very high, but they are better in the bushes then they would’ve been on the pavement in the midst of traffic. This is Bill Hess, @billhess, posting for @burndiary in Wasilla, Alaska on summer solstice, 2014.

1 Responses to “Chickedee”

Bill,
What a nice story about the chickadee. I would have done the same thing. It’s great that your recovery is making headway as well.
If you check my latest blog entry, you can find out about my experience with an indigo bunting.
Here’s to your continued progress, healing and well being.
Mike